Area Law Firms Encouraged to Step Up, Give Back

When the Race for the Cure first came to Columbus in 1993, the legal community had already embraced it and the mission it helped to fund.

Susan Brown was one of the Race’s early leaders, and was an attorney who knew all too well the importance of a community rallying together to fight breast cancer. When she was in the throes of her bout with the disease in the early 1990s, her law firm rallied around her, as did all her friends and family. Before there was even a pledge program in place, her firm raised $3,000 for the 1994 race in her honor.

Michael and his mom, Georgeann, at the 2006 Race for the Cure.

My family was among her supporters, and I remember a visit my parents and I made to see Susan just days after a successful bone marrow transplant. She was a little weaker from the procedure, but a little stronger, too: this was a disease she would not beat just in herself, but on behalf of all the women in Columbus. She got on board with Komen Columbus shortly thereafter. In 1995, her firm and one other in town sported their respective law firm t-shirts for the race. They dubbed it the “lawyers challenge.” That served as the inspiration for the successful team program that has helped propel Komen Columbus ever since.

But there has not been an official competition amongst area law firms – until now.

“The winning law firm will have a few prizes,” says Becca Thomas, the Director of Events and Marketing for Komen Columbus. “There will be public recognition, including in our e-newsletter. And we won’t make any lawyer jokes about those attorneys for at least a year.”

The law firm that registers the most people on its team will be the victor. The firm that fundraises the most above and beyond all members’ registration fees will also be recognized.

If that’s not incentive enough, know that the key in this race is not the speed with which we finish, but the number of people who sign up to participate: tens of thousands of Central Ohioans are there to run alongside, in honor of and in memory of those who have fought breast cancer. The result will be more funding to fight for preventive services, treatment, and as ever, for the cure. Last year, nearly $2 million was funneled to local efforts to combat breast cancer.

A year ago, 13 law-related organizations ran in the Race. But we can do better. Together, we can save more lives here. And racing for the cure on May 18th is a step in that direction. That support has made a difference over the years in the lives of countless area women, including my mother, who has been a survivor and a breast cancer advocate for over a decade. She’s the reason I got involved with Komen Columbus, and I’m proud to share her mission and the mission of so many others in eradicating this disease once and for all.

(Please see a previous post Michael wrote about his involvement here.)